Snowball Fights
by Kittyclaw
Summary: Oneshot. "Take this," she said, handing Aelita one of the lumpy balls of snow. "Return fire!" Odd commanded, as he and William both popped up and began hurling snowballs. "What do I do?" Aelita asked. "Throw it!"


**So, I wrote this in half an hour as a way unwind. At least I'm getting _something_ done. I haven't even re-read it, so I apologize for any and all errors. Also, it's all AU like because it has naive, new-to-earth Aelita being friends with William (among other people). Enjoy.**

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"I…don't quite understand what we're supposed to be doing."

"We're building a fort," Odd said, glancing over his shoulder. Beside him William took a massive handful of snow and packed it on top of the strange wall like pile of snow he and the others had spent the past twenty minutes accumulating.

"So that we have somewhere to hide," he said as he worked.

"And we're making snowballs," Yumi added, poking her head out from behind the snow pile-wall to show Aelita the lumpy, rounded blob of snow in her hand.

"I understand that," Aelita said, frowning at the group. "What I don't understand is why we're doing these things."

"Didn't you hear what Ulrich said?" William asked, looking at Aelita in confusion.

"I did," Aelita said, looking more confused than ever. "But what does that have to do with making a…" she glanced at the snow heap, "a fort and snowballs?"

"Aelita," Yumi said patiently, "what was it that Ulrich said?" Aelita blinked at Yumi. Surely she could remember what Ulrich had told them—after all, she'd been standing there with the others when he'd said it. But she figured Yumi would have asked her without reason and so, naïve and obedient, Aelita parroted back Ulrich's words from earlier.

"'Me and my teammates could beat you guys at any game you want. Just name your challenge'," she said. Aelita then pointed to their blonde companion and added, "then Odd said 'how about a snowball fight'. And then Ulrich said 'name your time and place' and then Odd said 'right here, right now' and then Ulrich said 'five on five?' and Jeremy said 'don't pull me into your childish spat' and then Odd—"

"We get the picture," William said, cutting Aelita off. The pink haired girl stared at her friends innocently while Yumi and Odd struggled to swallow their laughter. "Do you get why we're doing this now?"

Aelita's eyes lit up, and she opened her mouth to respond. Then she paused, look thoughtful for a few moments, and then shut her mouth and shook her head. As William dropped his head in defeat, Yumi stepped in to help him out.

"What is it you don't get?" she asked, as William returned to helping Odd increase the size of their snow pile.

"What is a snowball fight?" Aelita asked curiously. She taken aback when he question caused William and Odd to swivel around and gape at her, wide eyed. "What?" she asked.

"You don't know what a snowball fight is?" Odd asked incredulously. Aelita shook her head, suddenly feeling self conscious. "How do you not know what a snowball fight is?"

"Not everyone is as culturally aware as you are, Odd," William said, giving the blonde a shove. Odd flailed dramatically, toppling over into the snow and then twitching theatrically. Yumi ignored him completely.

"A snowball fight is," she started to say, before she was cut off by a voice shouting from halfway down the soccer field,

"Ready when you are, losers!"

"Stuff it, Romain!" Odd bellowed back, while Yumi grabbed Aelita's wrist and pulled her back behind the boys' snow pile.

"Take this," she said, handing Aelita one of the lumpy balls of snow, "it's a snowball."

"What do I do with it?" Aelita asked, staring in surprise at the massive pile of snowballs that Yumi had accumulated.

"Throw them at the other team," William said, grabbing an arm full of snowballs. Aelita stared at him in shock?

"Why would I do that?" she asked. Before anyone could answer, Odd's voice rang out over the conversation.

"Incoming!"

A second later, a snowball collided with the top edge of their fort.

"Return fire!" Odd commanded, as he and William both popped up and began hurling snowballs back at Ulrich and his three teammates. Aelita could hear the soccer players shouting all kinds of taunts and insults as their snowballs rained down against the snow pile turned fort, Odd and William returning their jeers in kind.

"What do I do?" Aelita asked Yumi, who was ducking down to grab another snowball.

"Throw it!" Yumi shouted. Not sure what else to do, Aelita bounced up and, without taking an aim, hurled her snowball. Timothy, who had jumped up to throw a snowball of his own, found himself right in Aelita's line of sight and, with a startled shout, took the snowball to the face and then vanished from sight behind his own fort.

"Oh no!" Aelita gasped, while William and Odd cheered. Odd then latched onto Aelita wrist, jerking her back down to safety and out of the way of Theo's return fire.

"Take that!" Odd shouted triumphantly. "Way to go, Aelita!"

"I didn't mean to hit him!" Aelita cried, mortified by what she'd done.

"It's okay," William assured her. "You're supposed to him them."

"Really?" Aelita asked, bewildered. William nodded, just as Odd popped up, snowball in hand, only to take one of the icy projectiles to the face.

"No!" he cried dramatically as he crumpled to the ground. "Go on!" he wailed, not bothering to wipe the snow from his face, "save yourselves!"

"Shut up," Yumi said, rolling her eyes as she tossed one of her own snowballs at the blonde. In the background, Aelita could hear Ulrich cheering.

"So, what's the point of this?" Aelita asked. She found she was directing her question to William's legs, as he'd jumped back up again. After a few throws he plopped back down and replied,

"Does it really need a reason?" He grinned, grabbing another couple of snowballs. "Sometimes you just do something simply because it's fun."

"Because it's fun?" Aelita repeated, while William returned to hurling snowballs and insults at Ulrich and his team. Looking up at William, Aelita then turned to look at Yumi, who was currently chiding Odd, the blonde having given up on his playing dead act. He was now making more snowballs for his team. And, even though Yumi told him it was against the rules, when he offered her one of his snowballs she didn't turn him down, instead taking it and hurling it at the soccer players.

"Yes!" both Yumi and Odd cheered when the snowball managed to take Theo out of the game.

"Nice shot!" William said, as his own snowball sailed straight towards Romain's head. He cheered when his projectile found its target, though his joy was short lived—just as William's snowball found Romain, Romain's snowball found William. "Dang it," William muttered, before not so gracefully dying in the snow.

"Looks like it's just you and me," Yumi said, addressing Aelita while Odd valiantly vowed revenge for his fallen friend and William helpfully pointed out that Odd was already out the game. "We'll show those boys how it's done."

"Okay," Aelita said, and even though she still wasn't quite sure what was going on she grinned, realizing that she didn't have to understand _why _they were hurling snow at one another to know that it was fun. Grabbing armfuls of snowballs, Aelita and Yumi bounced up, ready to hurl for all they were worth—

Only to find themselves facing a stick with what appeared to be someone's white sock tied to the end of it.

"I surrender!" Ulrich could be heard shouting from where he was safely hidden behind his fort.

"What are you doing?" one of his teammates shouted. "It's just two girls!"

"No," Ulrich said back, "it's two girls, one of whom happens to be Yumi, who I know is getting snowballs from Odd. Five bucks says he's packed one of them with ice."

Blinking in surprise, both girls turned to look at Odd, only to frown when they noticed him trying to scrape ice off of the goal post behind him. When he realized he was being stared at, he attempted an innocent look while quickly dumping his handful of ice onto the ground.

"What?" he asked. Yumi simply shook her head, and then dropped her snowballs, wiping the snow from her gloves as she turned to Aelita.

"And that," she said, grinning widely, "is a snowball fight."


End file.
